He's my brother and he's freakin' heavy!
by chat-noir-91
Summary: It's a case of mistaken identity when Connor's mysterious older brother, Lee, takes his little brother out on the town and Abby is left to deal with the aftermath...  Xover with Ideal, canon Abby/Connor and slight mentions of Becker/Sarah
1. Chapter 1

**So yeah, kinda random but I was watching Ideal the other day and wondered what it would be like if Abby met Lee :)**

**Xover between Primeval & Ideal, don't own anything :) **

Yeah so rating for language and drug use :) Just putting that out there, if that offends ya, soz...

So it's set Season 3 Primeval in between eps 3 &4 , so no Cutter and Danny's not on the team, and for Ideal it's set kind just before 3x5, "the Bath" so yeah Lee's not all .. odd... well less odd than he is in the later eps :)

A/N : so so anyone that doesn't know the TV show Ideal, it was one that Andrew Lee Potts was in while he was also doing Primeval, he plays a drug addicted wannabe rockstar. If you haven't seen it, check it out on youtube, it's hilarious :)

* * *

><p>Abby sat alone in her large apartment, enjoying the peace and quiet for a change. No anomalies had opened in weeks and so they'd been sent home, told they'd receive a call if there were any anomalies.<p>

Rex was snuggled up next to her on the couch, sound asleep and the lights from the telly illuminated the dark room. It was getting pretty late into the evening, but Abby wanted to wait up for Connor. Not that she wanted to act like his girlfriend or anything, nope, that wasn't her deal... She told herself. She just was excited to hear about how his night went.

Connor had received a call that morning in the ARC, telling Abby it was his older brother. The news of Connor's brother shocked her a little, she never knew... Not that she'd asked him about his family, well except his dad... and that was more from asking Connor why he wore the ring around his neck. It had once belonged to his father, but he had had been killed in a car crash when he was younger. Connor didn't really talk much about himself; he talked all the time, but never about anything truly personal.

So when Connor had said that he was on the phone to his brother, Abby was all for them catching up and having a 'boys night' as she had told Connor. He wasn't entirely up for the idea, which didn't really surprise Abby. Connor never really struck her as the 'party all day and night' type of guy, more the 'wait 14 days in a tent for tickets to the new Star Wars movie', which Connor denied ever doing, but she'd found the tickets...

So after much convincing from herself and Sarah, Connor had reluctantly agreed to go and meet up with his brother Lee.

He'd left that evening to go around to his brother's flat and jokingly told Abby that if he wasn't back by morning to call the Missing Person's Unit. Abby had laughed and told him she'd have to, as he still owed her this month's rent and with had Connor had left.

However, it was now getting to the wee hours of the morning, which was unusual for Connor not to be home - not that she was worried about him. It was a Saturday night, perfectly understandable for a normal guy in his mid-twenties to be home late on a Saturday night...

"But he's not normal..." Abby sighed, curling up next to her pre-historic pet, listing to Rex sleepily smack his lips as he shifted in his sleep.

No, she wasn't going to worry. He was probably just reminiscing with his brother about all the good times they had growing up, all the pranks Lee pulled on his dorky little brother and all the times Connor told on his older brother for stealing his toy dinosaurs. Somewhere between imagining Connor's family holidays, she had drifted off into a comfortable sleep.

A loud knock at the door woke her instantly, making Abby practically jump out of her skin.

"Oooopen uuup-p," Connor's voice called through the key whole, followed by a childish giggle, He laughed, finding his situation thoroughly amusing, but the door muffled his words as he stepped away from the key hole. " It's –eee."

"Bloody Connor," she muttered to herself as she grabbed her dressing gown from where it lay across the armchair in the far corner and flicked the lights on.

The knocks continued, pausing slightly and then speeding up the pace, forming a little tune.

"What the hell time does he think this is?" Each syncopated knock was making her that much more irritated and annoyed.

She flung open the door, expecting to unleash a blind rage of fury, but instead was stunned into silence when she saw his appearance; this was not how he had left their flat ten hours ago...

The first thing she noticed was his hair. Spiked up at all angles like a porcupine with what, Abby could only assume was at least a whole bucket of gel and a can or three of hairspray. Next she looked at his clothes, he was wearing a long black leather coat, black skinny jeans, biker boots and a red and black striped top. He looked like an eccentric emo rock star, not the Connor she knew. Though that was not the most starting aspect of his appearance. He looked completely sloshed! His eyes were nothing if not glazed over, and he was leaning against the doorframe, which by the looks of things, he was one step away from fully making out with.

As if suddenly realising the door had opened he smiled, giggled again and stuck out his hand, " 'ello, I'm – "

"Yes, I know, we're well acquainted," Abby grabbed his hand and put it over her shoulder, helping him inside. Man, when did Connor get so heavy?

"Are we?" He muttered to himself, his head lolling around as he looked at his surroundings.

"Wot a lovely house, d'you make it?" He commented, as Abby helped him onto the couch. She wasn't about to attempt the stairs with Connor in this state.

"Uh, no..." She replied frowning, where the hell did Connor think he was?

"S'alright," he shrugged, though clearly disappointed with her answer. He starred at her for a brief moment, looking her up and down with a sleepy smile.

"Geez, you're fit, ain't cha!" He suddenly blurted out, giving her a lazy wink, his head fell forward, looking like it was too heavy for his neck to hold up. He snapped his head back up as if he'd just had a brilliant idea.

"Fancy a shag?" he wondered casually, making it sound as if he'd were asking if she wanted a cup of tea or the last biscuit from the tin.

Abby paused with shock and rage, her eyes wide. She threw his arm off her and pushed him back to the couch. God, who knew Connor was such a sleazy drunk...?

"I'm fine, thanks," she glared at him.

"Suit yerself..." he muttered in reply with a shrug.

Letting out a deep breath she calmed herself, relaying the thought in her mind that Connor didn't know _or mean_ what he was saying and that it was just the alcohol talking...

"Come on, you need to sleep," she picked up the blanket at the end of the couch and spread it over him.

"I'm in a band," he suddenly said, sitting up again and looking up at her.

"_Really_?" Abby told him, her voice rich with sarcasm. It was really too early in the morning to be dealing with Connor's idiotic drunken ramblings.

"Yea', it's'alled Silicon Val-leys," he murmured, allowing Abby to push him back down on the couch. He gave a happy little grin and curled back up in his blanket, like a small child. "But it's Valets with a 't' ..." he yawned widely in the middle of his sentence, closing his eyes.

Abby laughed despite how tired she felt, she really needed to find her video camera. This was priceless!

"Like, as in parking valets..." his voice was getting softer as he spoke more to himself than anyone else. "like those dudes that park ya car..." And with that he was fast asleep.

"Right..." Abby shook her head, walking away from her sleeping flatmate. God, he was well and truly out of it. She poured a glass of water and took an old ice-cream container out of the cupboard and left it by the coffee table next to the couch. Couldn't be too careful and if she knew one thing for sure, Conner was gonna have a bigger problem in the morning. Turning off the lights, she made her way up the stairs to bed. She was going to have some interesting tales to tell come Monday morning in the ARC.

* * *

><p>Sunday morning was usually a nice relaxing day that her and Connor would spend the day watching movies and just doing absolutely nothing. That was except when an anomaly showed up and their weekends turned into workdays.<p>

This just happened to be such a morning. Abby curse her phone violently and imaginatively as she reached her hand out of her warm cocoon of covers to answer the phone.

"Hey," she mumbled almost incoherently into the receiver.

"_Abby, sorry but there's an anomaly just opened up, we've got it pretty much under control but I need you to meet us at the ARC," _Becker barked orders through the phone, with all the command of a highly decorated general. _"Oh and – "_

She hung up, not really needing to know anything else that Becker had to say at _six _am, and forced herself to roll out of bed. With a violent yawn she stretched her arms out wide – this was all Connor's fault, if she hadn't been waiting up for him, she'd had a pleasant night's sleep and not the measly hour that she'd only _just_ manage to get.

Walking towards the bathroom, she smiled wickedly, at least Connor would be worst off than her and she would at least get a shower.

She'd already opened the bathroom door and thrown down her towel before she even realised that she wasn't alone.

"Mornin'," his voice was a hell of a lot more nasally and husky than she'd ever heard it before. She was going to ask him if he was feeling okay, but the scene she saw being carried out in front of her made her whole body shake with anger.

"What. _The. FUCK_. Do you think are doing?" She growled darkly, she'd gone past angry now, she was about ready to murder Connor right in front of her.

"Uh, coke? Y'want some?" He sniffed, rubbing his noise with the back of his hand from where he sat crouched next to the toilet seat, a small white pile of chalky powder lay on the toilet lid. He lifted the rolled up five bob note towards her, smiling, without a care.

Abby's eyes began to tear up with all the anger her body was radiating. She slapped his hand away, grabbed his shirt and pulled him up to standing, shoving his against the wall.

"How can you be so stupid!" She yelled, pushing him against the wall again, before slapping him hard across the face.

"Oww, now that's uncalled for, that is..." he moaned, nursing his cheek with his hand, sinking back down the wall to the ground.

Abby couldn't deal with this. Not after everything, Stephen, Cutter. So much had happened but she thought they were getting through it, together. It broke her heart to see that he'd just been lying to her face every day. Just like ...

She couldn't deal with it.

"Get up," she said coldly, pulling him off the floor and pushing him out the door. She couldn't even speak to him, she was that angry. At the moment she just wanted to punch him until he told her he'd never do it again. But deep down she still didn't want to hurt Connor and she knew he couldn't be alone, not in this state. The ARC was the only place now, she'd let the others deal with this. Hopefully they could talk some sense into the stupid idiot.

"Get in," all emotion had left her voice. She pushed him into the car door, not even noticing the look of confusion his face held.

"Kidnappin's a serious offence," he pointed out as he fell into the passenger seat.

"Don't talk."

"Is it weird that you're turning me on? I think I'm coming down with that Swedish syndrome already," he smirked at her, cocking his eyebrow suggestively, but Abby didn't even look at him. She kept here eyes straight ahead, not trusting herself to not throttling the idiot sitting next to her if she so much as looked at him again. "You know the one where you start te get the hots for ya kidnappers..." He continued to ramble.

"I said shut up," she growled, her knuckles whitening as she gripped the steering wheel tighter to release the anger.

No more words were spoken as Abby floored the accelerator and sped towards the ARC.

* * *

><p>Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. Never were those words truer in the case of Abby Maitland. Her hand was clasped tightly holding a bundle of his shirt as she practically dragged him through the ARC security and its inner corridors towards the main research area, where she was told everyone had just got back from the newly opened anomaly and would meet her there. None of the security men had asked her twice about why Connor didn't have his ARC ID. After the death glare Miss Maitland had given them, they just let the two employees pass, not wanting to be on the receiving end of her rage.<p>

Abby ignored his random mutterings of 'where the hell are we?', 'are you an alien?' and 'are you going to kill me?' Chalking it up to however much cocaine was pulsing through his system at that time.

She pushed him into his usual chair beside the ADD. She couldn't cap her anger any longer; it burst out of her like molten lava from Mount Vesuvius.

"What the hell are you thinking Connor? Drugs? Really? You're a fucking idiot, do you know that?" She began to pace back and forth, ignoring his interruptions.

"When did it start?" She continued her inquisition. But he just starred at her, too afraid that he'd say the wrong thing.

"WHEN!" She yelled, grabbing him again, by his shirt collar, pulling him up out of the chair.

"ABBY?" Becker came running in at full pace, hearing the distress in her voice from the corridors. Sarah and Jenny followed in quickly after.

"Are you okay?" he ran up to her, checking that she wasn't physically injured in any way.

"What's going on?" Jenny asked, studied the scene before her.

"I caught Connor taking cocaine this morning," she said, her tone cold as ever.

"Connor? Ah, look, I think I can explain, I-" the young man in the chair tried to talk.

"God, just shut up Conner, you selfish bastard."

"Well hello to you to..."

Abby span around, mouth open, literally gobsmacked as the Connor that she knew and adored came walking through the corridor.

"What?" She turned from her normal Connor to the emo Connor in the chair beside her.

"I see you've met Lee," he said awkwardly, gesturing to his doppelganger.

"Lee..." Abby began to breathe again. "As in your _brother _Lee... your _identical_ brother Lee..."

"Yeah..." Connor rubbed the back of his head nervously, not making eye contact. He could tell she was pissed, no, scrap that, _beyond pissed_... he was going to need to start making his funeral arrangements... she was _definitely_ going to kill him...

Abby looked at the man in the chair again. He looked exactly like him, well in most ways, excluding his clothes and his hair and the look on his face that told Abby he was higher than a kite at this point in time.

All at once Connor began to apologise, "I'm really sorry, it was meant to be like a two second joke, you know 'oh look Connor's gone crazy, oh no he hasn't he's just got an identical... twin... brother...' yeah okay so not that funny, my bad..."

"Yeah, not your brightest moves there Temple," Becker shook his head, for a genius, he really could be so stupid at times.

"Yup, got that one, thanks Becker," Connor quipped to Becker as he walked over to Abby and his brother.

Abby was still looking from Connor to Lee, looking for their differences. She realised now, thinking back, that they didn't exactly sound the same and they definitely didn't talk the same way.

"It was in my file?" Connor gave a small smile, hoping to ease up the tension.

"Who reads other people's files?" Sarah scoffed.

"Connor does," Abby smiled a little; her anger towards Connor had lessened. It wasn't his fault; you can't choose your family and what not.

"Oh..." Abby suddenly felt a little embarrassed. She spent the morning treating Lee as if she'd treat Connor it that situation.

"I guess I kinda owe you an apology...?" She muttered awkwardly, rubbing her hand on her sleeve.

"S'alright," Lee looked up towards her general direction with a sleepy smirk on his face. "Was fun, you're a bit o' a feisty minx, though ain't cha?" He gave her a wink.

All eyes were on Abby, which she became well aware of all too quickly. A quick glance at Connor made her think he was about to pass out from how pale his looked.

"W-what?" Connor's eyes were slightly shiny as he felt his stomach churn. Had he heard what he thought he'd heard?

"Oh what? No, _God_ no, HELL no," Abby said quickly, realising what everyone was thinking. "Connor," she looked over at him, "I thought he was _you_, I would never... _you know_," she told him as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

Even Becker winced when they heard the words leave the zoologist's mouth.

"R-right," Connor said, feeling as if he'd just been punched continuously in the gut. "Course..." He looked away, picking up his brother by the arm, putting his around his shoulders. "How stupid of me..." he said quietly to himself, looking down at the floor.

"Come on, I'll call Jason," He muttered, helping his twin out of the room.

Abby bit her lip as she watched the brothers leave the room. The silence was unbearable; she'd known she'd said the wrong thing as soon as it had left her mouth. Once again, she'd spoken without thinking and unconsciously managed hurt her best friend.

"So you all knew?" Abby broke the silence, verbalising a passing thought. No one else had seemed the least bit surprised when there'd suddenly been two Connors in the room.

"Becker and I ran into them last night at a bar," Sarah spoke up. Becker immediately shoot Sarah an annoyed look, one that screamed 'What are you doing?'

It was lost on Abby who was still processing the recent events in her mind, but Jenny caught the small lovers' tiff and smiled to herself.

"Really...?" Jenny gave the soldier and the Egyptologist a knowing look, as they both avoided her eye contact.

"What should I do?" Abby sighed, running her hand through her short blonde locks, completely unaware of the other conversation happening around her.

"Go talk to him," Jenny told her wisely, "kiss and make up!"

Abby shot Jenny a hard look at her last comment.

"Oh, you know what I mean," Jenny rolled her eyes, 'God when would those two kids get a bloody clue?' she thought to herself. "Connor was just being, well, Connor, he didn't know this would happen..."

"Fine," Abby nodded, walking towards the corridor where Connor and Lee had disappeared through moments before. She needed to apologise to Connor, well first he needed to apologise to her, and then Lee needed to as well! Cause seriously, what the hell was Lee thinking coming back to her flat at five o'clock in the morning, unannounced and without Connor?

Then and only then, and depending on how sorry they both were... she _might_ apologise to Connor...

Behind her she could just hear Jenny begin a conversation with Becker and Sarah.

"So... how was the bar?"

* * *

><p><strong>Hey so i can end it there, or write the wrap up scene with Connor &amp; Abby, explaining a bit more... was also thinking of writing up what actually happened that night, with Connor, Lee, Jason, Becker &amp; Sarah... thoughts? yes? no? <strong>

xxx


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2 :) Hope you guys like it!

**A/N :** So since there's not a lot of Lee character to go on, from the TV show Ideal, I kinda made a little bit of him up, sorry if you don't think it's true to his character, but I wanted to make him have a bit more of a compassionate side – he can't be a twat all the time :)

So yeah, um like before warnings for language and mentions of drug use :) Soz if that offends ya!

* * *

><p>Abby walked down the brightly lit corridor, searching for the Temple twins. She was angry at herself for getting so short with Connor, it wasn't his fault... not really...<p>

She could hear Connor's voice echoing from his lab, which was just down and to the right.

Abby waited by the door for a moment; unsure whether it was the right time to go in. Did Connor and Lee need a minute to talk? Or was Connor just going to sulk about the hurtful comments she'd made?

She quickly popped her head around the door, taking a second glance into the lab where Connor and Lee were. They didn't seem to take any notice of her hiding by the side of door. Abby could see Lee sitting in a chair in the corner, wiping away the last of the cocaine that dripped from his nose. Connor was pacing back and forth in front of Lee with his phone to his ear, obviously not too impressed with whoever was on the other end.

"Look Jason, when can you get – no I really don't want to know about that – No look – WOAH! Stop! JASON!"

Abby watched as the phone was pulled away from his ear, she could just make out the sound of a small voice coming from the receiver – a sharp chattering sound as the person on the other end continued their conversation not knowing that they weren't being listened to. After a few moments, Connor put his ear back to the phone and tried to butt in.

"Look, put some pants on and - what? You're _where?_ ... Seriously? Wow... how'd you get there? - No wait, scrap that, _that_ is something I have _no_ interesting in knowing... (sigh)... yes that's great... Look, just tell me your flat number... that's not your flat number, Jason, that's your dealer's address... because you told me last night! That's how I know... "

Abby could hear him sigh with frustration to the person on the other end of the phone – Jason. She wasn't entirely sure who this Jason guy was but from what she'd gathered, from the snippets of information, Jason seemed to be a friend of Lee's, and well Connor must've known him for a fair while if he was talking to him like that on the phone... She'd never heard Connor be that direct with someone, well, ever...

"_Fine_, don't come... I'll drop Lee back at your flat later," Abby listened for the click of the phone, realising he'd hung up on Jason.

"Here," Connor muttered, handing a bottle of water out for his brother. "You need to drink this."

Lee just glared at his twin, looking back at the water like it was laced with poison.

"You'll be coming down soon and after last night you're probably dehydrated." Connor told him earnestly, attempting to offer the bottle once more.

Lee cocked his eyebrow but accepted the bottle nevertheless, unscrewing the cap and taking a drink.

Abby knitted her eyebrows in concern as she watched the display of unrequited sibling affection before her. She knew that Connor must be furious with his elder twin at the moment and was obviously holding it back until Lee got into a better frame of mind. Though it was nice to see Connor acting as the supportive, caring brother. It was the type of behaviour she'd always imagined Connor possessing around a sibling; the funny, dorky little brother who you could always depend on in a time of need. However, looking closer at the scene before her, she could tell it was a little rehearsed, as if they had done this a million times before – which was a slightly unnerving thought. Biting her lip, Abby realised that it was a great possibility that Lee Temple had worn out his brother card a long time ago...

Lee had taken the bottle reluctantly, giving Connor a hard look with his overly bloodshot brown eyes.

"Did we get abducted by aliens?" Lee blurted out suddenly with a disgusted look on his face. Obviously that hadn't just been some random coke-induced thought he'd said before.

Connor scrunched his eyebrows in confusion for a moment, looking at his brother with utter perplexity before rolling his eyes. "No," he retorted in disbelief, "this is where I work..."

"Oh," Lee scratched his ear nonchalantly, "pity," he added, looking around the room, "would've made a _really_ good story... actually, can we just tell people that we did? Could sell the story to the tabloids... Y'know, it would really boost album sales..."

Connor starred with his mouth hung open and his eyes wide, "Are you _hearin'_ what you're sayin'? 'Boost album sales'? You're a bloody drug addict! I think you need to get your priorities in order!"

"I'm a _rock star_, Con, I need to think of me image," Lee told him as if it was the simplest idea to comprehend.

Connor rolled his eyes once more. Abby could see that he wasn't winning any battle with his brother.

"I'm fairly sure Jenny said 'Talk to Connor' not 'Eavesdrop on Connor'," the unexpected sound of Becker's voice beside her made Abby jump instantly in surprise.

"Don't sneak up on me like that," she scolded with a sharp whisper, giving him a hard punch for good measure.

"Well, I believe in our line of work you should probably be used to things trying to sneak up on you," Becker retorted smugly.

Abby simply glared at him, not happy with the solider's cocky attitude.

"And what were y'thinking coming to the Ar - ... my work...? You could've got me fired!"

Abby froze, she hadn't thought about that... Oh God, her eyes widen as she suddenly realised the ramifications of her actions. What if Lester had found them instead of Becker...? Not only would she be in deep shit for bringing an unauthorised civilian into the ARC, Connor's job would most definitely be on the line... He'd already been fired once before for telling people about what they did...

"Don't you got puttin' that one on me, it was _Blondie's_ fault!" Lee spat back.

"Don't you _dare_ blame Abby!"

As Connor began to shout, Abby knew it was time to interrupt the two brothers. It didn't sound like it was going anywhere good and Abby knew from experience that sibling arguments tended to end in tears... or blood, especially if those siblings were brothers.

"That's your cue, Abigail," Becker said pushing Abby into Connor's lab, where Connor looked up at her.

"It's your fault for – " Connor's words were stopped mid sentence. His fighting stance instantly melted as soon as he saw Abby standing at the door. His eyes briefly met her gaze before he turned his head, as if embarrassed.

"Hey," Connor muttered quietly, trying his best to make it look as if he weren't avoiding her eye contact.

"Hey," Abby replied lamely, letting the awkwardness settle in around them.

"So..." Connor clicked his tongue as if trying to fill the silence with any noise possible.

"Abby, look, I'm – " he tried to talk, fumbling over the words as he tried to connect his brain with his mouth.

"Can I, uh, talk to you, alone?" Abby thumbed awkwardly in the direction of the door, wanting to kick herself for how stupid her words were sounding at this moment.

"Yeah, sure" Connor's face failed to hide the wave of panic that rose within him. Abby bit her lip, what did he think she was going to say?

"Lee?" Abby asked the seated man quietly. She was still unsure around Connor's brother. She hadn't quite worked him out yet...

"We'll only be minute," she assured him, but Lee seemed to take no notice of her. He was still coming down off his cocaine induced high. Though, Abby decided it was probably a mixture of inebriated aloofness and arrogant pride that brought about his behaviour. Realising that she wasn't going to get a response, Abby nodded and left the room, waiting for Connor to follow.

Connor looked up at where Abby had left, suddenly aware that Becker had also been standing there too.

"Becker, could you stay with him, make sure he doesn't destroy the ARC...?" Connor muttered to the soldier on the way out, shooting a worried glance back at his brother.

Becker nodded and stood tall by the door, giving off a intimidating appearance. Connor ducked his head to hid his smile, it always made him laugh when Becker went all 'soldier boy'. But to show his thanks, he gave the Captain a small nod of gratitude as he left the room to follow Abby.

Becker didn't watch the youngest Temple leave the room as his eyes were sharply trained on the eldest, making sure he didn't do anything stupid...

"I don't need a babysitter," Lee spat in disgust, eying the soldier before him.

"Well, good thing I'm not a babysitter," Becker said deadpanned, leaning his elbow back on his sidearm holster, showing Connor's twin that he wasn't a person to be messed with.

Lee gave a disturbed look, one that Becker had never seen Connor make, and swallowed, "Are _you _an alien?"

Becker let out a groan of frustration, praying, to any higher power that would listen, that Connor and Abby wouldn't take too long...

XXX

They'd found an empty lab down the corridor from Connor's. Abby had opted to stand at first, whilst Connor jumped up on the bench, his legs swinging underneath him. He had his head down and his hands curled up in his lap. Abby thought this made him looked rather like a little schoolboy sitting in the principal's office...

God, she didn't know where to start...

She needed Connor to know that she wasn't angry at him. Not really. She had just been so scared this morning. Seeing Lee in the bathroom, thinking that he was Connor... It was the first moment that she truly thought she was loosing Connor... and it had really scared her. That's why she'd been so angry, lashing out at everyone around her. That was how she was when she felt truly afraid and helpless...

"Abs, I'm really sorry," Connor looked up at her, a wounded puppy dog look in his eyes.

"I was gonna bring Lee around this morning, introduce you to 'im, but last night kinda got out of hand and then there was the anomaly incursion... I thought you'd be asleep so I told Becker to call you later, telling you where I was but..."

"I hung up on him..." Abby winced, realising that this whole situation had been a snowball of events that had ended up turning into one big messed up avalanche...

"Yeah..."

They let the silence sink in between them once more. Abby hated this, why was this so hard. Talking to Connor was usually so easy for her – second nature. She could tell Connor was hurt from her comment before, which made it all that much harder.

But they needed to get through this hard stuff, so that they could get back to being easy...

"I caught Lee taking cocaine this morning, in our bathroom," Abby said quietly, using her arms to push herself up to sit next to Connor on the cold bench. She wasn't ready to share this with her flatmate but seeing Lee in the bathroom that morning had brought up some very painful memories for her. Memories that she'd buried deep down inside.

Connor didn't appear to be too shocked by this information, though he did drop his head, running his fingers through his hair in frustration.

"I'm sorry," he apologised, his voice no louder than a whisper.

Abby was taken back by his apology, that wasn't the answer she was looking for. "Connor, you don't need to apologise for what your brother does,"

"Have been all me life, why stop now?" He looked up at her with a her a sad smile.

There was a moment of silence as Abby wondered if he was just going to leave it there, but then he began to talk again.

"We used to do everything together, we were inseparable us, he was me best friend, complete opposites though, he always like pulling pranks on the neighbours, stealin' their cat for fun, I was more into digging up the garden for dinosaur bones... but it seemed to work, he'd always get me in trouble though... " Connor gave a little chuckle, thinking back on his childhood.

"What happened?" Abby asked. It was strange that it had taken them all this time to have an actual conversation about Connor's past. All these years she'd known him and they never once traded memories of who they were before they joined up with Cutter and the ARC. It was like they'd just assumed each others lives had begun with the beginning of the anomaly project.

"Lee changed after Dad – after the accident... he started hanging out with Jason, skipping school and stuff... I stayed at home, mostly, to help mum get through it all, the whole thing was really hard on her." Connor shrugged, he wasn't overly comfortable with taking about himself to Abby. He always wanted her to seem him as the loveable happy Connor, not kicked puppy dog with baggage Connor.

"In the end we grew apart, he went on to being a 'rock star', I went to Uni, we haven't really talked much, what with him tourin' and stuff..." he concluded, scratching in ear nervously.

"I'm sorry," Abby said sincerely, rubbing his arm to comfort him.

He let out a deep sigh and shrugged. "That's life, ain't it?"

Abby was growing slightly more annoyed at Connor's elder twin. From what she'd heard from Connor, Lee was a bit of a people user, taking what he could get and leaving them dry once he was done. And Connor, being the person he was, would always be there to pick up the pieces for Lee...

A smile suddenly crept up on Connor's face as he thought back on what Abby had said earlier.

"What?" Abby laughed, seeing the gleeful look that had appeared on her friend's face. What could he possible find so amusing at this moment?

"You said '_our_ bathroom'," he said with a goofy child-like grin. Abby's face immediately mimicked his infectious smile. Trust Connor to find a comical silver lining in amongst their sober conversation.

"Well, it will be 'our bathroom', when you manage to pay your half of the rent!" She teased, elbowing him playfully in the ribs.

"Ow," he whined, pouting as he rubbed his side.

"C'mon," Abby announced, leaping off the bench. Sure, they hadn't got very far today, in terms of revealing the painful truths of their past, but they'd chipped the surface. She didn't expect Connor to divulge his whole life story whilst they sat in the cold ARC lab. It would take time. It was a start at least. But it was nice, finally seeing a side to Connor that she'd never seen before. They could get there, little by little.

"I've got the mini in the parking lot, I can give Lee a lift back to his place."

"Yeah, probably should get Lee out of here before Lester sees him..." he quipped with a look of mocked horror, "or Becker shoots him..." Connor added lightly, jumping off the bench.

XXX

The drive back to Jason's apartment was rather awkward. Lee had significantly sobered up but had decided to remain silent, which Abby was quite happy with, though she'd admit it might have been due to the rather threatening glares that Connor had been sending his elder twin via the rear vision mirror.

"Connor, wait here, I'll go with Lee to the door," Abby turned the car off.

Lee had taken to opportunity to exit the car rather hastily, not wishing to be confined in the cramped back seat of the mini cooper a moment longer.

"What? You sure?" Connor gave her a worried look, before glancing over at his brother, who was now currently standing on the curb, and then back at Abby.

"I need to talk to him," she told Connor quietly, throwing him a reassuring smile.

Connor nodded, willing to agree to most anything Abby wanted if it meant she'd forgive him.

"Thanks," she told him, glad that he accepted her decisions. She shut the door with a soft slam, shoving the keys into her pocket. She'd dealt with one Temple, now it was time to deal with the other...

Abby walked around the front of the car where Lee was standing sulkily by the gate in the high grey cement wall.

He gave her a cautious look as she opened the front gate of Jason's apartment building, allowing him to walk through past her.

"You don't need to walk me to the door, I'm not a child," he told her testily, "I can find a door by myself."

"I'm still waiting for you to apologise," she shot back, crossing her arms and giving him a hard look.

"Oh," he stopped walking, turned around to face her and nodded with a slight frown, smacking his lips awkwardly, "right... so, uh, sorry for..." he looked at her in a searching way.

"Shaggin' ya?" he said, unsure whether that was what he was meant to be sorry for.

"W-what?" Abby spluttered, her voice catching in her throat, "We didn't have sex!"

"Didn't we?" He retorted, not even attempting to hold back his expression of surprise.

"No,"

"Huh..." He let out slowly, pursing his lips in thought, "Did you want to?" he tightened his gaze as if he were interrogating her.

"NO!"

"Okay!" his hands leapt up in surrender, "s'fine..."

An awkward moment passed as they stood at the front door. "Sorry, what _exactly _am I meant to be sorry for? I'm a little fuzzy on some of the details of last night..."

"You came over to my flat? Unannounced? Drunk? Am I ringing any bells here?"

"Oh, right, yeah..." he nodded and smiled, happy to be able to recall his activities of the previous evening.

"Why?" Abby pressed, Connor hadn't seemed to be able to tell her what exactly Lee was doing at her house at four in morning and she wanted to know...

Lee let out a loud sigh, obviously not entirely wanting to have this conversation with her; clenching his jaw and avoiding her eye.

"_Well_?" Abby pushed, she wasn't going to leave until he gave her a reason. Mostly she was just waiting for an excuse to tear him a new one for the mess he'd caused and for making Connor have to clean it up. Sure Connor hadn't told her that he had a twin brother, sure there'd been wires crossed and messages mixed along the way, but that still didn't explain Lee showing up on her front door step at four in the morning!

"_Fine!_" Lee spat out in frustration, glaring at her for a moment, before his expression softened, "Connor... _Con_ had been talking about you all night... wouldn't stop actually - got quite annoyin'... 'Abby does this', 'Abby does that', 'Did you know that Abby can knock out a giant seal with one kick'..." he mimicked Connor, making his voice slightly more high pitched and whinier, like a small child's.

"Actually," he continued with an odd look, "now that I think about it, we probably should've cut Con off a few drinks earlier... he _did_ keep talkin' about dinosaurs trying to kill him..." He shook his head with a laugh, then sighed, rubbing his ear nervously as he rambled.

Abby fought back a smile as she realised both Connor and Lee did the same things when they were nervous...

"You got a point?" Abby stared at him, her hands on her hips.

"I, uh... I wanted to meet cha, y'know?" He reveal begrudgingly.

"What?" Abby wondered aloud, completely thrown by his sudden reveal. Lee had just wanted to meet her because Connor had been talking about her all night? Really?

"See if you were good enough me baby bro," he added quietly, shifting uncomfortably, looking around before briefly meeting her eye.

Abby was speechless. Lee had wanted to size her up for Connor? Even though he was completely drunk at the time and couldn't remember much of what he'd done or said, his intentions were surprising _honourable_...

"Oh..."Abby said unintelligently, as this seemed to be the only sound that could come out of her mouth at that point in time.

"Yeah..." He matched her tone, nodding his head slightly, "don't tell anyone, 'specially Connor, I've got an image to uphold, " he said coolly, sniffing sharply as he adjusted his leather jacket, leaning back against the door.

Abby was still in shock, letting her arms drop from her hips to hang heavily by her side. Perhaps Lee Temple wasn't the complete arsehole she'd first thought he was. Maybe first impressions weren't as revealing as she'd believed. Whatever his agenda or motives were, he still seemed to care very much for his brother, even though they weren't as close as they'd once been.

Shock, horror. Lee Temple was a compassionate, caring human being...

Abby nodded her head with a smile, "Your secret's safe with me." Cause Lord knows what the world would do if they realised that Lee had a heart!

"Oi, Lee mate," a new voice called out. Abby looked over to see a guy around their age, dressed in the same emo-punk-rock attire that Lee was wearing.

His short black hair was greased down into a point on his forehead, which must've been extremely annoying to deal with, Abby thought. Both of his ear were pierced with heavy metal studs and curled around one of his nostrils was a rather disgusting looking ring. Overall it wasn't the most pleasing look she'd seen on a guy...

"I see you're alive," Lee commented nonchalantly, as if not really caring about the answer, reverting back to his usual arrogant tone.

"Met up with that chick from Girls Aloud, didn't we, had a _right _good time," the man drawled out cockily.

Jason, Abby suddenly realised. This must Lee's friend Jason.

"The pretty one?" Lee's voice picked up quickly, obviously impressed.

"Nah, the ugly one," Jason shrugged.

"Right..."

"Alright'," Jason nodded to Abby, casually with an air of arrogance, "Jason out of Silicon Valets," he told her coolly, talking himself up as if he were the most amazing person on the planet. Abby fought the urge to burst out laughing at the sight of him. Did both Jason and Lee always introduce themselves like that? God, they might as well introduced themselves and 'Doucebag and Twathead'...

"Abby," she nodded back with mock interest.

"Right, cool..." Jason sniffed, wiping the back of his hand across his nose, before announcing - "I need ter piss," and shooting a look at Lee, "gonna get right wasted tonight, eh Lee?" Jason cackled dryly as he pushed past Abby, fiddling through his pockets for the door key.

"Yeah," Lee concurred with a cocky smirk.

"Got that album launch tonight, ain't we," Jason nodded arrogantly back at Abby as he pulled the shiny little key from his pocket.

"Sounds thrilling," Abby drawled sarcastically.

"Oh, Lee, we need to see Moss, I'm out of Black widow," Jason told his flatmate as he fumbled with the small shiny key.

Lee gave a small awkward click with his tongue, not meeting Abby's eye, as if not wanting to see her judging glare.

"We can go after, it won't finish that late..." he answered.

A small click was heard as Jason unlocked the door and kicked it open with his foot uncaring of the damage he'd cause.

With an ungraceful spin, Jason turned back to face Abby, a lecherous smirk on his face, "Wanna come to a launch party for the _newest_ Silicon Valets' single," he flirted cockily, "It's gonna be well _mad_..."

Abby's face froze in a mix of horror and disgusted. Was he for real?

"There's gonna be an after party later," he continued, before dropping his voice down to a whisper, "_in my pants,_"

Lee rolled his eyes in annoyance, gritting his teeth and curling his lip up on one side. He was obviously not impressed by the sleazy actions of his band mate.

Abby starred blankly at the delusional wannabe in front of her, "I _actually_ think I just vomited a little in my mouth," she told him, her face deadpanned.

"Suit yerself," Jason scoffed in such a way that it gave Abby déjà vu from the night before.

"Get inside," Lee muttered, giving his band mate a forceful shove that was a little too hard to be considered friendly.

"Nice meetin' yah Stacy," Jason waved to her with the back of his hand, not even bothering to turn around as he continued walking through the door.

"It's 'Abby'," she called back in frustration.

"_Whatever_," she could just make out Jason's voice as he disappeared into the apartment building. God, if this was who Lee hung around with all the time, no wonder he was a bit of a twat...

"Better go," Lee said quietly, nodding towards the front gate, "Con's going go apeshit if your not back soon," he added awkwardly. Abby could tell he was slightly pissed off at his band mate but was trying his best not to show his frustration by making an effort to look nonchalant.

"I guess, I'll see ya round," She gave him a small wave goodbye.

"Doubt it," he scoffed arrogantly, "the album's gonna be proper sorted soon, me n' Jason are gonna be massive, doubt we'll have time for the little people," He told her cockily, and just like that the normal Lee from Silicon Valets was back. He'd let the walls down for a moment as he began to remind her of Connor, but as soon as Jason had interrupted them, Lee was back to being his arrogant, cockily self.

"Right," Abby nodded, rolling her eyes as she turned to walk away. She could hear Lee heading in the front door behind her but realised she couldn't leave without knowing...

"Lee!"

"What?" he called back, turning around begrudgingly.

"Did I pass?" She gave him a playful glare.

"What?" He furrowed his brows in confusion.

"You met me to see if I was good enough... Did. I. Pass?"

"Barely," he scoffed, though Abby could tell by the twinkle in his eyes it was in jest. "I 'spose you'll do, but he could probably do better," he winked back at her playfully, turning back to the open front door.

Abby waited for a moment before calling out to him again.

"Lee!"

"God! What is it woman?" He groaned in frustration, spinning back around again, making Abby laugh.

"Stay out of trouble, yeah?" She told him, continuing to walk backwards towards the gate facing Lee.

Lee cocked his head to the side in mock thought and crossed his arms.

"I make no promises," he gave her a wickedly dark grin, pouting his lips as he sent a kiss in her direction. "I'm a man of me own creation, can't be tamed me..."

"You're an idiot," she laughed turning around to open the gate, realising that the brothers Temple had a whole lot more in common than she'd originally thought.

It was weird talking to Connor's twin brother. On one hand they were identical so it felt like she was just talking to her best friend, but on the other hand Lee was this stranger that she hardly knew anything about. The whole thing was rather confusing...

"Abby," Lee's voice stopped her short of the gate and she spun around.

"Look after my little bro, yeah?" He told her; somewhat uncomfortable with the words he was staying.

"Yeah," she nodded, knowing that she didn't need to say anything else.

XXX

With a smile on her face, she sat back down into the driver's seat of the mini, closing the door behind her.

"So did he apologise?" Connor wondered, taking his feet off the dashboard and sitting up.

Abby thought for a moment and suddenly realised that after everything Lee had said, he'd never _actually_ apologised... Well, Abby glanced at Connor, he didn't really need to. His heart was in the right place. He'd just gone about it the wrong way... and at the wrong time...

"Yeah," she lied, twisting the key in the ignition, causing the mini's engine to rumble. "He's gonna make it up to me by naming a song after me," she added with an air of sarcasm.

"God I hope not, his songs are awful! It'll just be your name repeated a hundred times in a robot voice!" Connor cried in mock horror, as he thought of the potential new Silicon Valets single.

"Sounds like a smash hit," Abby quipped, keeping her eyes on the road as they wound around London's busy streets on their way back to the ARC.

"Yeah," Connor agreed with a laugh. "I can see it now, 'Abby' by Silicon Valets" he spread his hands wide in the air.

"But it's Valets with a 't', yeah, like parking valets," Abby micked Lee's voice, "like those dudes that park ya car!"

Connor burst into a fit of giggles as Abby lowered her voice to do a near-perfect impression of his brother. Abby's face broke into a smile and she too began to laugh at the absurdity of it all.

As their laughter died out in the cabin of the car there was a moment of silence between the two flatmates.

"Con," Abby spoke up in a more serious tone than she'd been using before.

"Yup?" Abby could feel his gazed upon her. She bit the bottom of her lip nervously; she wanted to say the right words this time. Too many times had she spoke without thinking and unintentionally hurt her friend.

"I'm sorry, about what I said in the ARC this morning, you know about never wanting to, you know," Abby tried. 'Damn it,' she thought, 'why it this so much harder to say out loud?'

"It's fine," he shrugged her off, realising that she was uncomfortable with the conversation.

"No, it was hurtful, what I meant was, I wouldn't do anything to hurt our _friendship_," Abby tried again, taking her eyes away from the road for a brief second to glance over at Connor and see how he was reacting to her words.

He didn't look as hurt as he'd done in the ARC, he was smiling at least, though even from the split second she took to look at him, she could tell that his smile didn't quite meet his eyes as it normally did. God, she wasn't good at this...

"Yeah, I know, me neither," he told her honestly, giving her a quick glance before turning back to gaze out his window.

XXX

Abby wanted to kick herself. She knew she'd missed the moment – again. They'd been getting closer ever since the Professor died, but something kept stopping her from getting too close. It was some instinctive knee-jerk reaction that made her clam up every time their relationship was moving past the 'friends zone'. Relationships had never really been her thing. Animals were easy – they do what their instincts dictate – people are harder. While animals could only ever physically wound a persons outer shell, a person could penetrate her inner core, leaving more damage there than any lion or future predator every could...

But Connor was different. It was getting easier and easier to let him in. Of course that was both exhilarating and petrifying at the same time... She had to go slow – take it easy. Not because she was unsure of Connor, no she new that Connor was the perfect guy – funny, sensitive, cute as hell, fiercely protective – but she knew that if she went too fast, her instincts would kick in and she'd end up pushing him further and further away, most probably hurting him in the process... she couldn't bear to think of hurting him...

Connor had been his usual chatty self in the car, incessantly changing the radio station and moaning on about stopping for red lights – "Orange means slow down, not speed up!"

The rest of the day had been busy as usual. Connor had rushed back to work on the artefact and to try to rebuild the main ADD, the handheld ones were working for the time being but they still needed the main one fixed. Connor had also been working on his random side project. Abby wasn't entirely sure what he was doing but it seemed to involve a lot of coils of wires and bits of metal... he would explain it to her when he was done...

Around two in the afternoon, Connor had started to show the classic signs of fatigue so Abby had pulled him away from his gadgets and told Becker they were heading home. Becker had said he'd cover for them, knowing that both Abby and Connor hadn't had much sleep in the past twenty four hours.

When they arrived home, Connor had headed straight for his X-box, curling up with Rex and his little diictodon pets on the couch, while Abby sat perched up by the bench, extracting the warmth of her cup of tea through her hands, watching Connor slay zombies with glee.

"Ha ha, DIE!" he laughed triumphantly, jerking his hands around to move with the controller. Rex chirped happily as if concurring with Connor's victory.

A buzz alerted Abby of a call on her phone. Peeling her attention away from Connor's delight-filled virtual genocide of the mutant race, she picked up her mobile, realising there was a message on it.

-hey Abs i'm bak in ldn can i crash ur place?-

The message read. Abby rolled her eyes – Jack. How typical... That was totally how the universe worked... Never a bloody dull moment!

Some part of her just wanted to have a quiet week with just her, Connor and their prehistoric pets together in the flat, curled up with lots of tea and Connor's unique collection of "classic" cinema titles...

But Jack was family - the only family she had left. The relationship she had with Jack was a little different from that of Connor and Lee's. The last of the Maitland family depended on each other. They needed to look out for each other. The Temple twins had both made (debatably, in Lee's case... ) stable, and separate, lives for themselves. Jack still hadn't grown up enough to make it on his own this world, well, not without some help now and again. Actually, Abby was quite surprised that Jack hadn't called her up sooner. It had been a whole two years since Jack had turned up, unannounced, – pillow in hand – begging for a place to stay. Usually this had been a monthly occurrence - some times even bi monthly...

Abby knew that Jack wasn't the type for a random social call. He needed her right now... he probably wouldn't tell her at first, but she'd get it out of him in the end. That's what big sisters were for.

She could never refuse to help her brother, even if he was an arrogant idiot most of the time. But she guessed it was just like Connor and Lee. You can't choose your family, but even if you could, you wouldn't really change anything. They may drive you mad most of the time and make you wish that you'd been an only child, but in the end you still love them and want to help them when they're in need.

Abby sighed, texting back her response – 'sure, come round tomorrow xx'.

Jack needed her right now and she wouldn't turn him away.

"Everything okay?" Connor wondered, looking up from the television screen.

"Yeah, it's fine," she nodded, putting her phone away and walking over to take a seat on the couch next to Connor. She realised that Connor would probably have to find somewhere else to stay for a bit while her brother was in town... Though she wouldn't let him stay with Lee and Jason... _that_ would most likely end in disaster...

But Connor had plenty of friends, he was very lovable guy. He'd be fine...

Jack was family, Connor of all people would understand that, especially after today... right?

She'd tell him tomorrow...

It would only be for a few days...

With a sigh, she rolled her eyes.

_Brothers_.

* * *

><p><strong>The end? :) A little cheesy but meh... <strong>

**Let me know what ya think! I might write up some other ideas that I got for stories :) xxx **


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